Otome’s Way Kickstarter Project: A Fujoshi’s Guide to Japanese Volume 2

Learning Japanese the Fujoshi way :D

I came across this kickstarter project started by Otome’s Way, a BL publisher and thought it might be interesting for all interested to learn the Japanese language with the help of BL. Donating towards the project gets you some form of rewards too. Find out more at the kickstarter page.

Official description: Do you like the boys love genre? Ever wanted to learn Japanese? Otome’s Way has found a way to combine both ideas with our original language learning material, brought to you by our own Ai Yusura and accomplished Japanese teacher Yumiko Akeba. “A Fujoshi’s Guide to Japanese” is a fun, flirty study guide with an added BL flair!

The new volume will feature:

1) 180 pages of informative text and illustrations written by the extraordinarily talented team from the original Fujoshi’s Guide, Yumiko Akeba and Ai Yusura. Depending on how much support we receive, we can add additional illustration pages as we proceed.

2) Digital recordings of the textbook conversations, listening sections, and vocabulary lessons performed by rising young vocal talent in Japan. In the previous volume, we also included audio segments of the main characters’ conversations and pronunciation guides for the Japanese vocabulary. We intend to invite the same professional voice actors to reprise their roles for this new volume.

3) Downloadable content in various formats so that you can store the study guide on the device of your choice. Previously Fujoshi’s Guide was only available in a few very specific formats. We’re planning on increasing the types of downloadable content so as to make the material accessible from a wider variety of devices and platforms.

4) Grammar content covering demonstrative forms, adjectives, possessives, and more verbs and vocabulary. This includes practical examples of the different levels of formal and informal speech.

5) Kanji character matrices totaling about 120 new symbols to build off of the writing examples from volume 1. Easy-to-use charts will be added to the backs of each chapter for reference.

Where the money goes into (its interesting to see the capital needed to publish these works)

1. Writing the text, including grammar explanations, examples, audio script, and comic text = $3,000 2. Translation of the text into natural, native English in addition to the Japanese = $2,000 3. Proofreading/editing for fluency and professional quality = $500 4. Vocal recording of the listening CD by professional voice actors (the same actors from the first volume will reprise their roles) = $1,000 5. Illustration fee for the inset images as well as comic panels and still art = $3,000 6. Sound engineering for the voice tracks, including studio fee = $3,000 7. Publishing design including the cover, layout, etc. = $500 Total: US$13,000

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For beginners, you can check out the first volume, released in May 2013, introduced the basics of Japanese pronunciation and writing–including the hiragana and katakana syllabaries – as well as greetings, self-introductions, and counting. As a digital release, it comes complete with interactive charts, moving images, and audio guidance.

Link to A Fujoshi’s Guide to Japanese Vol. 1 : https://tigrislibra.com/us/item.php?ITEM_ID=19 (There’s a PDF sample of the contents in the site as well)